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Monday January 15th


Stormstayed this morning. Nova Scotia winter.

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You are invited to join an egroup dedicated to the teachings of the
Advaita Master Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

http://www.egroups.com/group/Nisargadatta

This is an unmoderated list with open membership.

Why Nisargadatta?

"The profound yet simple words of this extraordinary teacher are
designed to jolt us into awareness of our original nature. Like the
Zen masters of old, Nisargadatta's style is abrupt, provocative, and
immensely profound--cutting to the core and wasting little effort on
inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their
ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing, or even
reading them." -Robert Powell

Just before the chapter 1, this is how the great spiritual classic "I
am That" begins, "The seeker is he who is in search of himself.
Give up all questions except one: 'Who am I?' After all, the only
fact you are sure of is that you are. The 'I am' is certain. The 'I
am this' is not. Struggle to find out what you are in reality. To
know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are
not. Discover all that you are not--body, feelings, thoughts, time,
space, this or that--nothing, concrete or abstract, which you
perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are
not what you perceive. The clearer you understand that on the level
of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will
you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the
limitless being." - Nisargadatta Maharaj

"The core of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teaching is the knowledge of
one's own true identity. This knowledge is indeed the pivotal point
around which moves everything." - Ramesh Balsekar

"That in whom reside all beings and who reside in all beings, who is
the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the
limitless being--I am That." From Amritbindu Upanishad

"That which permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like
the universal space around us, fills everything completely from
within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman--that thou are." -
Shankaracharya

Hope to see you there,

Hur

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For your consideration: MiB (Men in Black)

Is MiB a so-called non-dual movie? IMO, yes.

Why? Why, mainly, the ending of course!

Throughout the movie there is the eternal struggle of good guy versus
bad guy. The characters who do get a glimpse of the truth are quickly
put back into a trance state.

There are forces at play that the 'common' man is kept from seeing.

No one is quite who they seem to be.

A great secret must be puzzled out.

In the end what is thought of as reality is show to be a small part of
a greater reality.

HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - Michael

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> For the movie The Matrix, do you agree/disagree and what are your
> thoughts
> that The Matrix was intended to be an allegory to the level of control
> exerted on Americans by the media?

gill said:

The only way to know for sure what it was intended to be would be to ask
the wachowski brothers. That said, it seems a rather narrow view. To
me it seemed an allegory to the level of control exerted on the minds of
most of humanity (not just Americans) by a few 'men in suits'. The media,
governments, business magnates; those who crave what they view as 'control',
and have a vested interest in keeping that control.

Paradoxically, it is those people who are most in need of 'freeing their minds',
those who are chasing ever more after 'power' which they think will bring them
freedom and happiness, and which is ultimately like digging yourself deeper
and deeper into a hole, with less and less chance of escape. I found it very
poignant, and I can't recall anybody mentioning this before, when the
agent told morpheus he was desperate to escape, that if he could just do this
one thing he would be free. Sound familiar?

terry:

I saw the allegory as being much greater than simply media control.
Note the numerous reference to Lewis Carroll: was he simply talking about
media control? 'How deep does the rabbit hole go?'
Morpheus was a Buddha (awakened one); that 'morpheus' refers to
sleep/death shows how topsy turvy the phenomenal world is from Reality, as
jesus points out, those who seek to save their lives lose them, and those
who lose them preserve them, while he himself lived that nondual view as a
martyr.
The 'matrix' itself is Maya, the world-illusion, the construct that
each individual creates and imagines that they live 'in.' The
'illusion-dwellers' for the most part are not ready to be 'unplugged,' but
morpheus/buddha and his crew/disciples were prepared to awaken those
individuals who could be awakened, with the ultimate aim of awakening all
sentient beings. 'Neo' was 'the One,' the ordinary you and me sitting at
our computer consoles seeking 'the truth' about the matrix/maya. When 'neo'
was prepared, by the oracle/insight, to sacrifice his individual life to
save the buddha/morpheus, then he became the One/an enlightened
being/bodhisattva. The buddha/avatar was always searching for a being he
could turn into a bodhisattva, and was trying to free people from the world
illusion (the truth: there is no spoon/there are no things). Neo simply
wanted answers, but morpheus' sole aim was to turn a neos into Ones.
The 'suits' were machines/mental constructs/ego, whose primary function
in being was to remain in control, and utilize 'life' as a power source for
machine functioning. They would be happy to create a 'perfect world'/happy
world illusion but life 'wouldn't accept the programming,' because as 'some
said,' they 'didn't have the programming *language* to describe such a
world' (language is inherently dualistic and happiness can only be described
by referring to unhappiness) or because humans 'defined their lives by
misery' (dualism is inherent in the development of life). You are right
that the suits/ego always think they can make some sort of progress,
accomplish one more thing and be done with this 'stink,' this world that
they 'hate' and 'can't stand'; the suits had to unplug from each other even
to admit that much. The suits had more raw physical power than real people
within the matrix, but they were inherently limited by the rules of the
matrix, while neo, being potentially the One, was not limited at all by the
rules of the matrix, once he realized the truth ('physical strength' means
nothing 'in this place').
So I saw the allegory as one of *any* ordinary individual finding
enlightenment with the help of the wise and accumulated human spiritual
culture and spiritual friends (the triple gem: buddha, dharma, sangha).

Great movie...

aloha, terry

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> Hello Jerry,
> Everyone,
>
> I understand. Without words. This is a place of total negation.
> Where there is no comprehender to understand. Understanding the
> posting, Yes? , Is the fuel for other possibilities. I see.
>
> Paul

Hi Paul,

At some point in these conversations or exchanges here, there's a
separation, as two people can never fully meet unless one has met what
is to be met. And that separation means being alone, and being alone
means knowing what has to be known in solitude. One can never fully
communicate. Every post drifts off into the far reaches of space. Every
post comes back from the far reaches of space, like cometes.

The bigger a person is, the further out into space one reaches, the more
open to every possibility one is and the greater the chance of being
carried far along in the communication of another or towards the source
of another which is the one source or the source known in solitude.
We've hung onto the tail of each other's comet-posts before being
returned to ourselves, which is not different than the tail of the comet
or the comet.

Thank you.

Jerry

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advice given:
eliminate everything witnessed
from the witness

poof!

the witness happily died
from lack of imagination

mmmmmmmmmmmm

love,
cee

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But the witness *IS* what is witnessed. Do you mean, detachment of
the witness from 'the personality'? That tends to occur naturally
after some indeterminate amount of witnessing (Nisargadatta's "remain
on the borderline between Being and non-Being").

...And who is to "do" this eliminating?


Somehow I still think you refer to "the personality" rather than the
witness.

"My" Advice:

(1) Accept (or discover) that nothing can be done, everything is
utterly futile, useless and pointless, because there is no doer and
nothing to be done.

*Poof* ... awareness shifts "away from" thought and onto itself. Or
the unwilling individual, now in a state of despair, commits
suicide. You's takes your chances when playing with fire.

(2) Awareness discovers its own uselessness as well... *Poof*, it's
over.

(1) and (2) often combine into one step, only expanded here for
purposes of clarity.

Love,

Omk.

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Interesting advice, cee.

*Who* is to eliminate everything witnessed?

Isn't the *who* just another concept?

And aren't you suggesting that a concept can eliminate
all other concepts, including it's own 'self' concept?


P.

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Indeed, (P.)

Being free from being stuck
is still being stuck with
being free.

Love,
Dan

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In the spirit of self discovery. If I may. This is not meant for
anyone at all.

This little voice which is heard in you and to which the words you
view on your screen right now is what you call a who. And some other,
Coming from over there, cee. but which is only another event that
composes your own, so called self.

Her advice ,If it is to be understood by you at this time would
only be the natural result of your own, self understanding. Which
might seem to lead you to a who that is doing the dropping of the
imagination of the witness. If the source of words or things seen
are understood then the meaning,if any will also be understood.

Paul

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And Futher more,

reading this now. I don't know what the Hell I was talking
about here.
Paul

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dear p.

guess we're all concepts on this cruise!
if a concept were to assert it's nonexistence
such assertion would surely prove it's existence

honestly
who we are is a zillion times more wonderful
than any concept

maybe that's why we love to wake up together

cee

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>(I can't get them to leave!)
>
> Ask them what they want. That usually does the trick however,
getting them to elect a spokesperson may be difficult.
>

When I asked them what they wanted they all burst into a rousing
chorus of "we got plenty of nothing and nothing's plenty for us"

>
>(Now, if you would, please come and collect your troops. They will be
> easy to find;)

> That's easy for you to say... you know where they are.

Well, I did when they were hanging around the Great Hall. Some of them
went exploring. I doubt we'll ever see them again. Certain parts of
the station lead off into multi-dementional space/time universes.

Sgt. Sweetiepie was last seen with a stunningly beautiful shapeshifter
from an adjoining dimension. He is reported to have been saying,
"yeah, baby, I DIG tentacles!"

>The problem with this operation is that I am to be bait and trap and
the focal point as ground zero. They are even hidden from me (as not
to blow our covers...well that is not exactly true we know who each
other are, at least us old guys anyways...)so it is like having eyes
but no feet, feet but no means of escape, escape but no direction...
>

Know what you mean. I asked your people what they would do if you did
show up. To a man, to a woman they yelled in unison: "Put'em on KP!"

That's when I took away the Veracity Vodka and started serving the
Laughing Latte!

> I guess I will just have to wait. On the bus; off the bus. When do
we get paid?


If the 'wages of sin' is death, we'll just have to content with what
we can get for a 'labor of love'.
>
> Poe
>

HAHAHAH and HOHOHO!

Peace - Michael

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Dear List,

I've posted some new files at the following site:

http://www.nonduality.intranets.com/

I don't think you have to be a member to access the above site (started by
Jerry) but it could be a fun adjunct to the main website and the list.

The files I posted are all in Adobe PDF format for easy reading and include
some of the U.G. Krishnamurti books, and others.

Enjoy,

Tim

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